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HELENA, Mont. — Two young goats wandered onto the thin ledge of a railroad bridge and spent nearly two days high above the ground until rescuers in a towering cherry picker plucked them from their perch, hungry but safe.

The rescue occurred Wednesday 60 feet above a little-trafficked rural roadway in southern Montana between Billings and Roundup, after a caller told the Rimrock Humane Society the goats were stranded on the 6-inch ledge.

The young female animals, weighing 25 and 35 pounds, mostly stayed on the angled ledge, even though there was a wider surface area on a pillar just a few feet away.

“The whole time, we thought they were going to fall off,’’ said Sandy Church, humane society president. “These guys are just babies.’’

Church said it was not clear how the nimble-footed animals got into the predicament.

But she speculated they wandered onto the ledge at night, then were spooked after the sun rose when they discovered where they were.

“We thought they were going to panic, but it was just the opposite,’’ said Church, who videotaped the 5-minute rescue that went smoothly.